In search of metaphysics

I hardly know anything about yoga and meditation, so I will not explain what it is. I try to understand these things from time to time, I’m interested in this subject, but I’m also very careful, I keep my distance. Małgorzata and Katarzyna Nowakowskie (I call them simply Gosia and Kasia) are very aware of what meditation really is. They seem to come from the other world, so much different than pragmatic, familiar Warsaw. They bring for me fragrant incenses from India; they tell me stories about sunset on a beach and dancing; about wandering gypsies-artists, who travel along Asia in multicultural camps, totally free, without commitments. Girls have time to look into their souls, to contemplate themselves, they don’t take part in the career rat race, they believe in intuition. They are happy and cheerful, but disciplined as well – no alcohol, cigarettes or junk food. They are twins – good spirits. Alternative from the bottom of heart.

From the left: Kasia & Gosia. 

Girls statements are gathered in one, they complement each other. But you should know, that they think about meditation and guru in very individual, personal way. 

It was 7 years ago. Our mum [Grażyna Dobroń – she’s a journalist in the radio Trójka; she works on programs about health and art of living] came back from India in extremely good condition, she was very cheerful and full of energy. She showed us the photo of guru, who became her master in ashram. She has met him thanks to some random, happy people. When were looking on this picture of Om Gurudev Janglidas Maharaj, we decided to meet him as well, to go to India. It was a feeling based on intuition, thing hard to explain. Mum was against this idea, she tried to convince us that we are far too young to go to ashram, which is a very ascetic place. But we were stubborn. When we got out of a plane in Bombay, we felt this humid, hot air full of aroma (it was sun, earth, incense, warm cut grass, dust that covers everything). We thought the same thing: we are home.  

Ashram is based in Maharasthra (rather flat landscape, not very interesting part of India). Our first visit was difficult. Conditions in the ashram were tragic, there were ants and other insects in our apartment; too small beds were covered with dust; there was no hot water in a narrow bathroom. Today everything looks different, but it used to be really hard. We were frightened.

Later we’ve met Babaji (it means „father”, that’s how you call guru). He was sitting between two other yogis. One of them, dressed in pink clothes, had truly wild eyes. He meditates alone in the Himalayas. He was looking at us with doubt, he was probably thinking, that we don’t think seriously about spiritual development. But Babaji was acting completely different, he made a huge impression on us. He was so warm, caring and full of love, that we started to cry every time when he even only looked at us. We thought that maybe we aren’t worth it. We have been totally shy for the first three years. Today we are much more relaxed in his presence, we even joke with each other.

In ashram day starts at 5 am. We meditate 7-8 times a day. We have breaks for the “holy tea” (tea mixed with a huge amount of sugar and milk) and meals. The rhythm of day changes, in details. We are the youngest Babaji’ students. Other people who visit ashram come from different countries, they believe in different Gods; Christians also meditate. Janglidas Maharaj doesn’t connect yoga with Hinduism, he teaches universal faith, or rather universal spiritual development. He’s against cult of his own image, that’s why he doesn’t like when somebody takes photo of him. He claims that meditation means finding and worshiping your soul. You can find similar pray in Christianity – it is called oratio pura, the pure pray. To really understand what mediation means, you have to try it on your own, nobody will teach you how to do it properly. It’s a lonely path.

Of course – we had doubts. We were wondering is meditation really good for us, doesn’t it cost too much. Today we are sure that everything goes right way. We still have fun, we meet friends, we dance. But meditation is our way of living. 

Every Tuesday (18.30 pm) and every Saturday (12 pm) twin sisters organize in Warsaw meditations open for everybody and free.  They are also looking forward to welcome Babaji, who will come to Poland in September.

People who come to meditate with Gosia and Kasia are mostly friends;  culture of East fans; and guys met on the street coincidently. For example Krzysztof Lottig, who plays an beautiful instrument called hang. It sounds like rain.

I also meditate with girls from time to time. I still don't know why. I look for metaphysics  I gues...

Ryan McGinley adventure

I remember this moment. I was looking at my mum’s pictures from the past. I was totally enchanted and  focused on them. And then, out of the blue, I asked my dad for his very old SLR camera. It was mysterious  – I was wondering if it still works, after all this years…  

Almost at the same time I discovered American photographer Ryan McGinley. I read about him on some hipster website, authors of this magazine were very much fond of New York. I’ve admiered Ryan’s photos for the half of a day; I was reading interviews with him: legendary stories about riotous city, that never sleeps, but always looks good in the picture. And these photographic fairy-tales about naked people-elfs, about huge American spaces, woods, mountains, rivers, lakes, oceans. Spicy sweetness:  rynamcginley.com. Ryan McGinley: great star of photography from the other side of the world. 

And later, this year, I’ve met Elizabeth. She came from NYC to visit Poland. She keeps a dead, headless, scary beetle in a transparent coffee cup, she collects alligator’ teeth in a wallet. She likes to mess with such a dark stuff. And…it turned out that she’s a friend of Ryan McGinley and that she is his model as well. This year she went with him and a group of other young and beautiful fellows on a journey along the South of USA. They worked on a new photo session. Elizabeth claims that it was an amazing, sometimes a little bit dangerous, kind if punk experience (swimming in a lake with alligators, exploring weird spaces). And that Ryan is very kind, trustworthy, gentile person, who never force people to do something that they don’t like. However, the most important was  work in a group, "one organism". Understanding and trust.  

Elizabeth travels a lot, she’s only 24 but she already went to Alaska, Tahiti, France, Poland and many other parts of the world. She’s an artist, you can check her work here: elizabethjeager.com

Anyway, I hope we will meet each other again. Maybe in New York. I’ve never been there.

No hatters in Warsaw any more

This article in Polish is written in a "book style". I will not translate it precisely. It's about my district called Ochota, a very old part of Warsaw. I've lived here for 5 years, enjoying my beautiful view from the balcony. You can see from there the gloomy church of Saint Jacob, for example. A lot of old-fashioned craftsmen (schoemakers, hatters, bakers in very small bakeries) lives in Ochota. I asked two of them to tell me something about their jobs and lives. The millinaire  explained to me, that there are no hatters in Warsaw any more and that modistes are also disappearing. The photographer told me the story of his family and his studio. His grandfather, Leonard Siemaszko, lived in Vilnius in the early twentieh century. He took photos of marshal Józef Piłsudski, who is considered by many people as a Polish national hero; he photographed also artists and many important people from that time. The family follows grandfather foodsteps. 

Here are photos from Ochota: 

Antoni's herd of hedgehogs

The decision wasn't easy. Antek Sieczkowski (I wrote about this artist here: http://warsaw-hedgehog.blogspot.com/2012/04/in-space-of-drawings.html) created so many hedgehogs, colors, characters and letterings, that It took me almost the whole night to test all of them. In the end I chose the picture that my friend Jacek called "the hipster hedgehog". Maybe this "animal" is sort of a dandy, but from my point of view he is associated with a variety od subjects that I want to write about; and with a kind of chaos that is typical for this blog. In ten future maybe I will use the other projects as well. However, the main hedgehog is "The hipster hedgehog". It makes sense, doesn't it? After all they say that Warsaw is the most hipster place in Poland. Whatever it means. 

Antek: "This is the variation of the last version, a  kaleidoscope .  You can always change the colors."

A: "This is a gradient through a number of colors which you can change regulary as well." 

A: "This is a sort of gradient, but natural; and there is the letter that I found somewhere. It replaces an apple."

A: "I enjoy the idea with a circle, inspired by cartoons". 

A: "The black roden' eye; you can put the lettering inside the cloud." 

A: "The first is from cartoons again; the second one as well, but with the cheec inspired for example by Ada Bucholc." 

Magic

I can't translate this post, because it's a literary short story and I'm not skilled enough. It's based on reality - two days ago I've met magicians (Ben Hanlin and Billy Kidd), who performed on the streets of Warsaw. They froze fountain, they swallowed needles... They came from UK, Canada and Australia. They were filming the series for Discovery Channel, called "Mindblowers". I will write an article about them for "Gazeta Wyborcza 

Telewizyjna".

Soon I'm living Warsaw and Poland, so I try to catch some impressions before goodbye. That's why this time I wrote a short story, not a normal article.

In a space of drawings

He is able to cover every wall in an art gallery with drawings or a studio with small handmade pictures glued to all available surfaces. His surprising, funny, sometimes shocking works are based on childrens' notebooks' drawings. Antoni Sieczkowski collects his own ideas from the past and he confronts them with a nonchalant imagination of an adult drawer

Crazy debut

The exhibition was called „Draw, don’t fuck around”. Antoni, who studies Graphics, had been drawing on the walls of the small gallery “Turbo” for a week. He was covering a bare wall with astonishing and surreal pictures. During the opening, the guests watched a desk, pieces from his childhood and other meaningful stuff taken from the drawer’s room. His debut exhibition was like an invitation to the imaginative world of a brilliant illustrator, who creates art wherever he can find a pen and a piece of paper. I decided to do something unconventional, a response to the place and to the idea. That’s why I moved some stuff from my room to the Turbo gallery. And so I was drawing. I wanted to show that drawing is a part of myself; something without the beginning or the end. I wanted to place this process in the universe for a while. I wanted to show it –Antoni is recalling. In the end, all the walls had to be repainted white. I didn’t feel sad about it. Somebody else did it, to be honest. There is a huge photo documentation of this exhibition. I was even thinking about some kind of a tournee, I wanted to travel with this project around the country.

Antoni surprised everyone during the outdoor workshop for drawers as well. Sometimes, when I wait for my computer to turn on, I draw something on the small cards. They are always around. I brought 1500 cards or more. I made pictures on them and glued them to the walls of the whole studio.    

Cut out from the childhood

No sophisticated words, pretentious theories or complicated philosophy. Antoni Sieczkowski, as an artist, is influenced by comics and cartoons. I was watching them like a lunatic between 1997 and 2001 –he is recalling. I was really into it. Cartoons from Cartoon Network were visually insane, not very proper for kids, rather for silly adults. I found them fascinating. A lot of ass and so on. Very weird things, which definitely influenced my current work, in a formal way. The same thing is about the comics. What was interesting for me, it was the visual side of it, not the story. Antoni describes his relations with serious art in a very honest way. Nothing really inspired me when I was young, this is something completely different from what I do.  I used to find high art very irritating and awfully pompous. Right now I’m very into artistic world. But things which I like are these ones that don’t treat themselves too seriously, for example work of Ziółkowski or Łódź Kaliska. I really enjoyed a book about dreams called “TRAUMTAGEBUCH”, written by Bosacki and illustrated by Bąkowski. I also find Paweł Althamer’s art meaningful and inspiring. It’s about social problems, not criticism.

Antoni’s drawings are often based on ideas from school. He respects childrens' imagination and he is a real collector. When I was a kid, I used to take notes in a special way. First I was writing, then I was drawing on margins at the same time. And in the end I was only drawing. My memory works even better this way, I have more associations with pictures then with words. So I started to collect these drawings from notebooks. Right now I have a whole box filled with them. I copy these ideas, I add something to them, I make collages from them. And in the end I get a new picture based on my ideas from school. I’m a collector, totally.

Diploma and reading

It’s not easy to meet Antoni at The Academy of Fine Arts, because he prefers to work at home. I’ve been reading a lot for the last 3 years. Not only books, but newspapers as well. I try to expand my knowledge about the world. This year he should complete his diploma project. It will be about my adventure with reading, actually. It’s going to be a book for people, who like to read and to watch pictures at the same time. It will be about drawing and about illustrators. It doesn’t mean that I’m working on a lexicon. It will be something very subjective.

Antoni designed the title hedgehog of this blog. This is his flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/antoni1/6964022274/in/photostream

 and blog: http://kropkiwpaski.blox.pl/html

Why does Warsaw love Berlin?

When you live in Warsaw and you are tired of winter, you can take a train to Berlin. 

When you know that the whole journey will take only less that 6 hours, even Western Station seems to look picturesquely. 

Then you go to the streets of posh Mitte and you can see the elegant building so beautifully spoiled by naughty paintings. Red lights, graffiti and bike's color harmonize with each other. 

White hair are not afraid of colors as intense as shop/club signboards.

There are many bicycles in Warsaw, but in Berlin bikes are everywhere, in every nook.

You can meet many artists in Berlin, for example Peter Broderick, who makes beautiful music in his awesome apartment, in the building where only musicians live. Listen here: http://www.itstartshear.com/

Peter plays piano in a magic way. You could listen to it all day.  

Peter Broderick about Berlin: Berlin is great. I ended up here because one of my best friends Neil is living here and some other really good friends as well. I new that I want to stay in Europe but Copenhagen is really expensive and my visa there was running out because when Efterklang isn’t touring I don’t have any reason to live in Denmark. In Berlin I got an artist visa for my own so it works for me. I’ve never came to Berlin and said: “OMG, this is the city I want to live in!” It was never really like that. I think one day I may end up living in a countryside somewhere. But now Berlin is perfect for practical reasons: it’s cheap, it’s central for my trips, I have a lot of friends here, there is so much music stuff going on which I want to be a part of.

I will write about Peter more here and there. 

Warsaw and Berlin are recently connected by Biennale 2012. Polish famous artist Artur Żmijewski became curator of this event. You can read about it on the blog: http://www.berlinbiennale.de/blog/en/home. Below you can see the very charming place related with BB:

Furthermore there is a nice food market on Prenzlauerberg, where you can buy and eat...

The cheese mister wear many earrings. 

On a flea market you can buy a vinyl with music to listen during cooking! German music. 

The architecture is eclectic in a Warsaw way. 

But pink seems to look a little bit better. 

Close to the river and Alexanderplatz spring comes earlier, at the beginning of March. People rest on the grass and make soap bubbles. 

If you are lucky, you can meet a nice photographer in C/O gallery: http://www.co-berlin.info/. And maybe he will make you a polaroid portrait. Fortune cookie in Berlin is always full of positive thoughts. 

Well, people of Warsaw can lose head for Berlin. 

New Yorkers about Warsaw

The band Point Reyes, created by Asa Horvitz in Brooklyn, recorded their debut LP called “Warszawa” last summer in Poland. The cover was co-created by the famous painter Wilhelm Sasnal. The album reflects the experiences and thoughts the Slavic country induced in the Americans during a long term stay. You can listen to it or buy it here: http://cakesandtapes.bandcamp.com/album/warszawa. This is how the Americans recall Warsaw:

Warsaw architecture:

Asa Horvitz (vocals, guitar): So mixed, surprising, unexpected – really the most interesting and wonderful of anywhere I have lived. Where else could Złote Tarasy, the Palace of Culture, and the faceless blocks of the 60s hotels be within ten minute walks of each other? No other city contains the traumas and triumphs of the 20th century so visibly, so obviously. This is what makes living in Warsaw powerful, you have a sense of a vector, a direction, from the past and moving forward. Warsaw has its own personality and is very distinct, it's not the stereotypical "Europe" of Krakow and Prague, it's much more like Berlin or New York. 

Kyle Farrell (percussion):  Think of biking along Vistula River looking at the buildings, being lost, really lost and hoping to catch a view of the Palace of Culture to orient myself.

Dan Bindschedler (cello): Warszawa has an endearing dichotomy. It is immediately cold and familiar. I took many walks around the city, spending hours looking at beautiful blocks of concrete and old doors. 

People of Warsaw:

Asa: On the street in the day, everyone is silent and looks down and is unfriendly. But when you become friends with a family, you become part of it, they love you and take care of you and treat you so well – this happened again and again to us. Every time during our trip that it seemed like everything was going to fall apart, someone took care of us in a totally generous and incredible way. Polish people in general impress me like this – they have a generosity and selflessness, a maturity, that you don't usually find in Americans. This is something Americans can learn from Poles and Warszawians. 

Kyle: Well, I made some great friends, but as far a people on the street it's kinda gloomy.

Dan: The only city I know where being born after 1980 is not helpful. There is always someone who knows more than you.

Clubs in Warsaw:

Asa: Chłodna is my favorite hang in Warsaw. I also like Cafe Kulturalna and Pardon To Tu. In the summer Plac Zabaw and Dolina Mumonkow are the best, though pretty much everyone seems to agree with that. 

Dan: I danced my butt off until the sun came up a few times under a highway at an outdoor club venue. I think this was Plac Zabaw. Plan B was my favorite club to hang out at. 

Art:                                                                                       

Asa: Zacheta is fantastic, and the contemporary art castle also has nice exhibits. My favorite thing I saw in Warsaw was an exhibition of Belorussian art at Zacheta, very strange and unexpected, powerful. 

Kyle: I will never forget the Belorussian show at Zacheta. And necessarily because it was good in a traditional sense. Then I met a mother and daughter on a train who was from Belarus and she said she went to the show. I said "Do you think it's a refection of the art there?" She responded "There is no art in Belarus."

Music in Warsaw:

Asa: So much! The Lado ABC musicians are obviously an incredibly important core of the scene and vital to Warsaw music, but the music scene extends far beyond that. Having musicians like Dominik Strycharski and his ongoing experimental improvisation explorations, alongside Marcin Masecki and Professionalism, alongside Paris Tetris, alongside a world class Classical music scene (seeing Leszek Lorent play Xenakis' Kassandra was a highlight) proves that Warsaw's music scene is doing very well. I'd like to also say that Polish theater is one of my personal passions, seeing work by and getting to work with directors like Wysocka, Zadara, Lupa, and Warlikowski was a hugely important part of my time in Poland. 

Kyle: I really liked going to Warsaw Autumn concerts.

What do you like the most about Warsaw and what do you dislike? 

Asa: Like most: the people. They are kind, humble to a fault, extremely educated, forward thinking and liberal, and have highly sophisticated taste in art, theater, and music. I also love the University library roof garden, and all the neighborhoods along the Wisła. Biking to the suburbs in the summer, immediately leaving the city and being in gardens and fields was always breathtaking and totally impossible in a city like New York. Like least: The food. Sorry. As a Californian I'm extremely spoiled. 

Kyle: There is so much I liked, the first thing that came to mind in this moment is the walk from the train station to our apt by the river in Powisle. Something I dislike is the strict biking and drinking laws...

How can Warsaw be attractive for someone who came from NEW YORK, so from the most attractive city on earth (that's what they say)?

Asa: Warsaw has a lot of advantages on New York. For what I paid for a single room in the scary ghetto in New York I rented a huge flat in Powisle. But economics aside I wouldn't have spent 9 months in Warsaw if I didn't love it. It has its own pace, its own feel, there's something unique there, something about being at the crossroads of Europe and being such an active part of history and somehow such a strong sense of identity, such a strength through it all. There's a strength there. And it's slower paced than New York. Artistically, philosophically, there are advantages as well. Polish artists of the generations older than ours are much less likely to compromise their ideas in order to make money. Already this is changing, theater rehearsals are shorter and people are trying to sell their work – I won't name anyone in particular, but there's a creeping anxiety about economics that is entering the theatrical discussion. I understand that there are obvious benefits to free market capitalism, but I would ask Polish artists to look very hard at American theater and see that this nonsense that we call theater is a direct product of the free market economy invading art, of shortened rehearsal times and compromised ideals, and please, don't copy that. Poland is connected to a theater tradition that is one of the best in the world and I really hope it stays that way. 

Dan: I return to Asa's comment about Warszawa in comparison to other cities. Warszawa's facade has a raw resilience that evokes feelings of other metropolitan cities, such as Berlin. These cities have an uncanny sprawl left over from the 20th centry that allows one to breathe. New York is saturated with real estate development, commerce, and ideologies. I love New York, but 

i find myself escaping frequently out of necessity.

Why you called your LP "Warszawa"?

Asa: It just seemed obvious. The record was written in Warsaw, it's about Warsaw, and Poland, it's about looking at Warsaw up close and looking at America from a beautiful distance. 

Kyle: Houses of the Holy was already taken.

Dan: There was simply no other name for it.

The bassist Jack Randall joined Point Reyes in USA. He explains, why he would like to come to Warsaw:

Jack: Poland has been weirdly present in my life for a while. My great-grandparents went through Ellis Island with the name Mazur; though they emigrated from Odessa, the heritage is pretty obvious. My older sister lived in Warsaw during the '90s teaching English; one Christmas she brought her boyfriend to the States and he was the tallest person I'd ever seen. Later, inspired by my family's murky history, I studied the history of the former USSR and read a lot about Poland's revolution - Solidarnost and Lech Walesa, plays and poems. I guess we'll never know if the Mazurs really came from Poland, because my great-grandmother left the family bible and her favorite goose behind when she "temporarily" moved to the U.S. in the teens, and both bible and goose are now long lost. Also "Low" is my favorite Bowie record, so touring in  support of an album called Warszawa was a sure thing.